Sometimes i substitute bread for a wrap, especially if i wanna make a cheap pizza ill use a wrap as a base. and my tip is that i sometimes used to go to morrisons or tescos about 5 or 6pm and pick up a whole chicken reduced in price to maybe £1.50, a couple of meals right there or if im being greedy ill eat it as 1 meal.

I dont get whats so hard in cooking?
making your own pizza?
flour + dry yeast + water, mix it together and let it rise
buy pizza-flour mix and add water
buy pizza dough

put on ketchup/tomato sauce and any other stuff youd like and in oven for 30mins

I know some people who dont know how to knead dough :gonk:

Edited:

also:

Indian Roti bread (Or Chapati depending on how thin you make it) it looks like a thick tortilla, but dont be fooled, it is actually closer to a flatbread, heres the recipe i used when i was looking for some kind of bread to make for my Hummus.

Hummus! Basically chickpeas (or other types of beans) threw in a blender or food processor, along with various spices from lemon zest, to italian seasoning, i love it with the aforementioned Roti bread.

I dont get whats so hard in cooking?
making your own pizza?
flour + dry yeast + water, mix it together and let it rise
buy pizza-flour mix and add water
buy pizza dough

put on ketchup/tomato sauce and any other stuff youd like and in oven for 30mins

It requires focus and a bit of creativity, as well as some basic technical skills that some people just don't have (how to chop an onion without losing half a finger, how to work dough without it sticking to everything, that sorta stuff)

Errr fresh meat needs to pretty much be used the day of in order to be good

And ice crystals have nothing to do with defrosting? When you freeze meat they get something called "freezer burn" where ice grows on the outside and inside of the meat, which pretty much kills flavor and if bad enough needs to be thrown out. This can be avoided entirely by vaccum sealing.

I don't know about you but I don't have time to go the market and buy fresh meat all the time, with my work and being a full time student. Especially since buying fresh meat only when you need it is extremely expensive compaired to bulk purchasing frozen meat, or just freezing meat in bulk you buy at the store when it is on sale.

this is kinda wrong.

people pay a premium for "dry aged" steak. all that means is that they've butchered the cattle then left it hanging in a fridge for a month.

fresh meat isn't "only good the day you buy it"

plus i'm not sure how vacuum sealing is supposed to stop ice crystals forming on the inside of the meat?

Edited:

also to expand on the OP, spend as much as you can afford on your knives!

i have a 7" chefs knife and a small paring knife - total cost of about £70

when picking out a chef's knife, pick the biggest one you can handle - it gives you more cutting area so you can chop faster and more effectively.

spending more money means you get better quality - it's going to be able to keep an edge for longer and generally be more durable. it'll be made of thicker metal so won't flex irritatingly like cheap knives.

when you get them - take care of them! use a butchers steel on them every time you use them to keep them well honed - and sharpen them with a whetstone when they start to blunt. keeping them sharp also means it's safer - because you're applying very little pressure to the knife when cutting, it's less likely to slip. you do need to be attentive though! i've only cut myself once with either of them in the last 3 years - and as a result of it being so sharp it went right through the side of my finger and embedded itself in the side of my fingernail. so be careful!

plus - even though they're pretty, granite and glass chopping boards can and will blunt your knives. wood ones are better - some studies have shown the wood has its own antibacterial effect and it looks pretty. it's cheaper and easier just to get plastic ones - that way you can throw them in the dishwasher and so on.

Edited:

and - if you buy a wok - buy the biggest one you can - you'll just get annoyed with smaller ones.

if you're cooking with a wok you need to get it insanely hot - the pan and the oil should be smoking - that's how you know it's ready to roll.

frozen stuff in america really really sucks and is generally the worst but apparently in the uk frozen food is fairly nice

it's the same here
frozen vegetables and meats are absolutely not an option unless you want your food to taste like steamed cardboard

I don't know if the UK is the same but in north america, the more fat, sodium, and cholesterol it has, the less it costs
I can buy four packages of mac and cheese for the price of a few onions, seriously

it's the same here
frozen vegetables and meats are absolutely not an option unless you want your food to taste like steamed cardboard

I don't know if the UK is the same but in north america, the more fat, sodium, and cholesterol it has, the less it costs
I can buy four packages of mac and cheese for the price of a few onions, seriously

UK stuff is pretty damn good in comparison, it seems

i mean the cost of food is still fairly high compared to some countries, but we can easily get fresh, healthy food for the same (or less) than buying a heavily processed, pre-packaged meals

You need to use:
Sausages
Onions
Rice
Curry
Perhaps a bit of bacon if you feel like it

You can add other stuff too, however, I said this was quick and very easy.

Boil some rice. It's okay if you boil a lot, just be sure that your frying pan will be able to hold it in addition to the rest of the ingredients
Chop a couple of onions - you decide how many you need.
Cut some sausages into small pieces - again, it's up to you how many.

You melt some butter on a frying pan. Add curry to the butter when it's melted and stir it around so it doesn't burn. You decide how much curry you want, it really depends on how much you want it to taste like curry, but be careful that you don't use too much (I did this and while it tasted good it was a bit much). When you have a curry/melted butter mix throw in the onions. Then the bacon and lastly the sausages. Keep flipping it because you really don't want it to burn. Now add the boiled rice to your sausage mix and flip it around for a bit until the meal is done (it's not really important how long you fry it for, just make sure that the bacon is done and that the meal is warm).

For a less fuss baked potato, just wash it, put it in the microwave and set it away on full power for 6-10 minutes, opening every few minutes to give it a stab.

I have always had my baked potatoes like this, and its great as just as fast meal, and it tastes just as good as oven baked. I normally put a whole tin of beans, a whole tin of tuna and a generous amount of cheese on top, so its just a case of dropping the 'tater in the microwave, opening beans, opening tuna and cutting a little cheese.

Also yes, stew/broth is amazing. If you go to the supermarked at 7-8pm when they start reducing the things they are going to throw out the next day, you can often get bags of carrots, onions etc etc for 50-75% off, then you just need to take them home and set a big pot of stew away cooking with them all in. Its a great health snack that lasts for days.

If possible, stick a microwaved baked potato in the oven for 5-10 mins after, just to crispen it up.
It's perfectly nice after the microwave (I do mine in the microwave) but the few mins in a very hot (220 degrees C) oven should finish it off nicely.

i don't really think this is going to get hot enough to be particularly good as a wok.

as a standalone cooking device, it's probably pretty handy but there are a few reasons why i'm not buying it as a wok. firstly, it looks pretty heavy, meaning you can't easily toss around the stuff in it to mix it up. secondly, i don't think it'll get hot enough to use properly as a wok (though this is difficult anyway unless you're cooking on gas). thirdly, it just seems weird to have a wok with a lid.

so if you've got gas to cook on, just buy a normal wok. you can get pretty cheap ones from ikea i think.

i don't really think this is going to get hot enough to be particularly good as a wok.

as a standalone cooking device, it's probably pretty handy but there are a few reasons why i'm not buying it as a wok. firstly, it looks pretty heavy, meaning you can't easily toss around the stuff in it to mix it up. secondly, i don't think it'll get hot enough to use properly as a wok (though this is difficult anyway unless you're cooking on gas). thirdly, it just seems weird to have a wok with a lid.

so if you've got gas to cook on, just buy a normal wok. you can get pretty cheap ones from ikea i think.

It got pretty damn hot, at half heat I had oil popping up about a foot.

There is this quick little garlic bread recipe I make using pita bread, cut the pita bread in half so you have two thinner pieces and rub some garlic and butter on them, you can buy the ingredients cheap if you look and making the pita yourself is the best bet.

You can substitute butter for margarine if you like, its just good to go with some meals and helps fill up some room.

you can buy pitta breads for dirt cheap in walthamstow. 29p for a bag of 5, or 4 bags for £1! and they're baked just around the corner in nottingham. i buy £1 at a time and freeze them, then lightly toast and have them with humous. a great cheap food, and with garlic sounds delicious!

Guys, I hate to bump an old thread and bring up an old topic, but the whole point behind that vacuum pack / sealer machine isn't just to indefinitely freeze meat for a long period of time without it going bad.

Vacuum packed sealers are generally used for sealing and freezing up cooked dishes. Heston Blumenthal uses it to vacuum pack cooked meals he makes and it retains basically 100% of the flavour / texture / goodness of the meal.

So yeah, in short, you don't go and buy an expensive vacuum packer to just freeze store bought meat. It's more for freezing meals you've done without ruining the quality of it. I don't know about you guys, but when I cook a fantastic meal, I hate putting leftovers in the freezer because I know it'll end up becoming horrible. Frozen stew? God, disgusting. Potatoes become some sort of alien thing, horrible texture and all squishy, and it's just not nice unless you really have to. So yeah, just letting you guys know :) Because as you can tell, all the pics of the vacuum packer includes cooked foods, such as the fish with the herbs and lemon, or the chicken with the rub on it.